A Prayer for New Life

A Prayer for New Life

Where Grace Meets Shiloh: Part 2
August 24, 2025

1 Samuel 1:1-2:11

“How long will you act like a drunk? Sober up!” Eli told her.

“No sir!” Hannah replied. “I’m just a very sad woman. I haven’t had any wine or beer but have been pouring out my heart to the Lord.  Don’t think your servant is some good-for-nothing woman. This whole time I’ve been praying out of my great worry and trouble!”

Eli responded, “Then go in peace. And may the God of Israel give you what you’ve asked from him.”

1 Samuel 1:14-17 

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It’s easy for small churches to get an inferiority complex.  Everything in our culture says that bigger is better.  And yet, small congregations make up the majority of churches in the U.S.  Over 61% have less than 100 in weekly worship and 31% have less than 50.  Less than 10% have over 250 people, and yet these are the ones that get most of the attention.

Healthy small churches have many strengths.  They can adapt more quickly to change, nurture closer-knit intergenerational relationships, stay grounded in their local communities, and equip a higher percentage of members for meaningful service, both in and beyond the church.

As a woman who cannot bear children, Hannah is easily dismissed and misunderstood.  Her grief is mistaken for disorder and even drunkenness by Eli, the priest.  She prays fervently for a child and boldly tells Eli, “Don’t think your servant is some good-for-nothing woman.”  That line echoes for me when I think of how easily small churches are written off today.  “Don’t think your servants are good-for-nothing because of our size. 

From this misunderstood woman in this often overlooked place called Shiloh, God brings forth new life.  Her son Samuel will lead Israel as a prophet, confront the corruption of the priesthood, and anoint David, the youngest and most insignificant Son of Jesse, as King of a nation.  Hannah’s prayer in chapter 2, much like Mary’s Magnificat centuries later, celebrates a God who lifts the lowly and fills the empty.

This story isn’t directly about small churches, but it is about a God who tends to do great things in hidden and humble places.  It’s about new life beginning where others have given up hope.  At Shiloh, we are reminded that an entire movement can begin with a single prayer, a vulnerable act of faith, and a God who has not forgotten us.

Diana Butler Bass once said to a group of anxious church leaders, “I don't think I've ever heard so many people who claim they believe in the resurrection be so worried about the death of their church.”

For Further Reflection:

• Do you think more about life or death?  Why?

• What signs of new life are you seeing in unexpected places?

• What overlooked places in your life or in your church might become sacred ground?

Pray Always & All Ways

Pray Always & All Ways

Back to School Sunday

August 10, 2025

Matthew 6:5-8, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Psalm 139

When you pray, don’t pour out a flood of empty words, as the Gentiles do. They think that by saying many words they’ll be heard.  Don’t be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask.

Matthew 6:7

Rejoice always.  Pray continually.  Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

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This week we are focusing on prayer, but not just the typical prayers we pray to ask for God’s help to get through the day. We’re digging deeper into what it means to pray continually, to pray without words, and to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer that will keep us in tune with God’s presence in every moment.

The recorded message above offers some brief reflections on the ways our perspectives and experience of prayer changes through life. These reflections are shorter than usual because we had table conversations about prayer for a portion of our service.

I invite you to listen and then take a look at some of the prayers below that you may want to try on your own.

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The Welcoming Prayer

The Welcoming Prayer is the kind of prayer that is especially helpful when you are feeling triggered throughout the day. Most of our challenges and tempations come from a feeling that our security, our approval, or our control are being threatened. This simple prayer is a way of welcoming whatever emotions / reactions are stirring in us and releasing our need for security, approval and control to God, trusting that God’s grace is sufficient in whatever it is we are facing in that moment.

The Welcoming Prayer

First, Gently become aware of your body and your interior state.
Then pray the following:

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

I welcome everything that comes to me in this moment

because I know it is for my healing.

I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations and conditions.

I let go of my desire for security.

I let go of my desire for approval.

I let go of my desire for control.

I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person, or myself.

I open to the love and presence of God and the healing action and grace within.

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written by: Mary Mrozowski (925-1993)
The creator and spiritual mother of the welcoming prayer practice

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Breath Prayer

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Just as breathing goes on naturally in the body, prayer can go on naturally in our being. Thus we can understand the origin of the name more completely when we recall that in Hebrew the word RUACH has three meanings: “wind,” “breath,” and “Spirit.” Practicing the breath prayer re-grooves/rewires/renews our mind, slowly shaping it into the “mind of Christ” (Phil. 2:5)

Gifts of Breath Prayer

The breath prayer helps us re-groove our brains to be more Christ-like. Practice helps us let go of bad tapes and commentaries thus dismantling what is false within us and awaken what is true and good. Clarity develops. Understanding of scripture deepens. Daily chores go faster while engaged in active prayer. Interior detachment develops. Peace of mind emerges. A deeper awareness of the presence of God is experienced. A deeper bonding to Christ and the human family occurs.

Examples of Classic Breath Prayers

• Lord, come quickly to my rescue. God, make haste to help me.

• Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

• God, grant me peace.

• Open my heart to your love, Jesus.

• Father God, Thy will be done.

• Lord, hear my prayer.

• Lord Jesus Christ, enter Light. Do not let my darkness speak to me.

• Jesus, abide in me.

• Jesus, keep me simple.

• Holy One, help me.

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Pray All Ways

~ compiled by Dr. Reginal Johnson, author of Your Personality & The Spiritual Life

Although you may occasionally engage in almost all of the practices listed below, I invite you to note which ones most represent your regular pattern. You should also note a few that you may like to try and begin experimenting with them in your regular prayer life.

A Small Sampling of Prayer Practices for Every Personality Type

• read prayers from a book, or from the Psalms, or recite prayers you have memorized

• write your prayers

• follow an outline or pattern in your prayer time

• talk to God, spontaneously, in your own words

• express your feelings to God

• intercede by entering empathetically into the feelings of others and bearing these feelings to God in prayer

• intercede by talking to God about other’s needs.

• intercede silently by visualizing the other person in Christ’s presence.

• intercede for others while looking at their photographs

• intercede for others with the use of a “prayer list”

• spend time just “feeling” the presence of God

• spend time quietly thinking about God

• listen in silence for what God wants to say

• pray a phrase or verse from scripture in order to focus your attention and rest in God’s presence.

• imagine Christ present with you, or visualize yourself as present with Him in some gospel scene, and let that lead into conversational prayer with Christ

• read a passage of scripture and try to allow God to show you how it relates to or applies to your life.

• read from a devotional source which raises your thoughts to God and helps you think about His attributes and qualities and stimulate your worship

• pray over your day’s schedule, offering persons & situations to God in anticipatory prayer, and to seek God’s help in ordering your priorities

• read a selection from a devotional source which relates stories about how real people have experienced God in their circumstances, using it as a “faith lift”

• “daydream” or follow a stream of consciousness in God’s presence allowing it to take you “wherever” as you open yourself to God--all the way from confession of sins, asking for help, or receiving creative ideas

• think about something in a focused way, in God’s presence, perhaps with pen in hand

• use symbols in your place of prayer (for example, a lit candle, open Bible, picture, cross, or worship center of some sort)

• sing, play a musical instrument or listen to music during your time of prayer

• keep a spiritual journal or prayer diary

• set aside time during prayer in order to reflect deliberately over your day, in order to see how God has been (or may have wanted to be) at work

• set aside time for self-examination into your attitudes, actions or thoughts which are hindering your relationship with God

• “practice the presence of God” during the day by frequent interior conversations with God

• find that there are frequent moments through the day when your thoughts turn to God and you are conscious of God’s presence in you

• organize your schedule so that there are fixed times throughout the day when you remind yourself to lift your heart to God in prayer

• “pray with your body” by using posture (kneeling, lying prostrate, etc.),

• use actions (dancing or movement), or gestures (palms opened, arms lifted, etc.), as a means of prayerful expression to God

• sometimes use voluntary denial of an otherwise normal function (eating, watching TV, sweets, etc.) for the sake of spiritual focus and prayer

• walk / jog / play in order to place yourself in the “path” of God who lifts your spirit through the beauty of creation

• listen to audio readings of scripture selections, as you drive, work, or rest

• read / sing from the hymnal or other worship songs in order to drink in the message which comes through the poetic imagery as a means of being with God

There are as many ways to be present with God as there are to be in relationship with a friend. Once you carve out the space for prayer, you have a choice in what you and God do with your time together.

Don’t let your prayer life grow stale. Be Creative!

The hardest part is showing up and being present. Once you are present with God, the possibilities are endless. Enjoy.